The world's tallest man, China's Bao Xishun, became the world's tallest father this week with the birth of his first child, a boy whose initial height seems a compromise between his gigantic dad and average-sized mum.

Bao's son measured 56 centimetres long at birth, the senior doctor at Zunhua Hospital in Hebei province, said.

Although slightly taller than average for newborn children, Bao's boy came up well short of the 75 centimetres claimed as a record birth length last year, also in China.

"Bao is quite happy. The baby is healthy and a normal size," the hospital's senior doctor Zhang said.

Bao, a 7-foot-9-inch (2.36 metres) herdsman from Inner Mongolia, last year married Xia Shujuan, a pygmy by contrast at 5-foot-6 inches (1.68 metres).


His son weighed 4.2 kilograms at birth, a touch heavier than average.

Bao's son was born on Thursday but news of the birth only spread widely on Saturday, with the Chinese press according the newborn a level of privacy that is rare for the world's tallest man.

Agencies